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Oftentimes I'm perfectly happy being in the cheap seats when witnessing life's spectacular moments. (Well, not perfectly happy. I'm always searching for a better view.) Take the Northern Lights. In recent weeks, some people who normally might not be able to gaze at the Aurora Borealis from their own back yard got treated to quite the light show, thanks to a solar radiation storm late last month. But what would the Northern Lights look like from the real nosebleeds (though not cheap)? What would they look like from, say, the International Space Station? NASA has released video of a sequence...

1 Cruise to northern Norway The Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten (0844 448 7601, hurtigruten.co.uk) has launched a number of new charter flights in response to a surge in demand. A five-day “Arctic Highlights Voyage”, sailing from Tromsø to Kirkenes and back, costs from £949 per person, including flights, on selected departures in November and December. In addition to time in Tromsø (home to the Arctic Cathedral, Polar Museum and a Polaria Centre containing bearded seals), optional excursions include husky dog sled rides, a visit to North Cape, snowmobiling and a trip to the border post with Russia. There are longer...

Explanation: Illuminated by an eerie greenish light, this remarkable little planet is covered with ice and snow and ringed by tall pine trees. Of course, this little planet is actually planet Earth, and the surrounding stars are above the horizon near Östersund, Sweden. The pale greenish illumination is from a curtain of shimmering Aurora Borealis also known as the Northern Lights. The display was triggered when a giant solar coronal mass ejection (CME) rocked planet Earth's magnetosphere on January 24th and produced a strong geomagnetic storm. Northern hemisphere skygazers will also recognize the familiar orientation of stars at the left,...

This is astonishing beauty. One has to believe in God when seeing such splendor! Here's another time-lapse video of the aurora borealis from tonight in Norway: Aurora Time lapse from Kattfjorden (Norway) Here is the photographer who got these beautiful shots: Helge Mortensen Tromsø, Norway arcticshooter.blogspot.com/ I mostly shoot the aurora borealis/Northern lights in the winter season. In the summer I really enjoy the midnight sun and the incredible light you get. I take all kind of pictures but my sweet spot is landscapes that includes the ocean. I do bracketed shots if it benefits the image. But I...

Auroras may dazzle more people than usual this weekend as Earth receives a glancing blow from an enormous solar outburst that erupted on Jan. 19. The outburst, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), was detected by sun-watching satellites. Researchers at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute predict that auroras should be visible from Seattle, Des Moines, Chicago, and Cleveland, to Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia Saturday and Sunday nights, weather permitting. ... Space Weather Center forecasters say they expect the encounter to generate a weak geomagnetic disturbance beginning around 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Sunday Jan. 22 and lasting...

Here's a great video primer on how auroras form, from Per Byhring and the physics department at the University of Oslo. With wonderful graphics, the nearly, five-minute-long video details the origin of the solar storms that trigger the Northern and Southern lights. The video explains how the fusion of hydrogen atoms deep in the sun produce heat and energy, which bubble up to the surface and let loose a cloud of electrically charged particles. After about 18 hours, this plasma reaches the Earth and interacts with the planet's magnetic field, which funnels the particles to the poles, thereby setting off...

"Over the last two decades photographer, Jim Henderson, 62, has witnessed 350 aurora displays in the UK. Jim has only had to travel a few miles from his cottage, 25 miles west of Aberdeen, to capture his images."

On Sunday, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory detected a complex magnetic eruption on the sun. The NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) also spotted a large coronal mass ejection (CME) The eruption happened around (3:50 am EST), the SDO detected a C3 class solar flare originating from a group of sunspots (called sunspot 1092). The flare itself was not that large, but the filament located about 70,000 miles away erupted at the same time. A filament is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Filament is anchored to the Sun's surface in the...

AURORAS AND A FIREBALL: This week, the brightest auroras of the year have been surging around the Arctic Circle. Never one to waste a photo-op, English astrophotographer Pete Lawrence boarded a "Northern Lights flight" on Feb. 15th, and this is what he saw 37,000 ft over the Shetland Islands: "The display was awesome and completely occupied the view, illuminating the fuselage and clouds below us in an eerie green light," says Lawrence. "At one point, a brilliant fireball streaked down towards the horizon. If you're wondering why there are two fireball trails, the main one was so bright that it...

A flotilla of NASA probes has solved the 30-year mystery behind the most colorful aurora displays on Earth and the explosive magnetic "substorms" that spawn them. ADVERTISEMENT NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft in different orbits around Earth spotted the trigger for the substorms, powerful energy bursts in the planet's magnetic field that can interfere with satellites, power grids and supercharge the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights. "We discovered what sparks the magnificent light show of the aurora," said THEMIS principal investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos, a space scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Angelopoulos and his team used...

Nasa scientists have discovered what they think causes the Northern Lights, the dramatic, colourful displays seen in the sky seen near the Earth's poles. After a year of studying the mysterious phenomenon, researchers say explosions of magnetic energy occurring about one-third of the way to the moon are responsible for the lights, known as auroras. Nasa say explosions of magnetic energy occurring about one-third of the way to the moon are responsible for the lights, known as auroras Researchers used a network of five Nasa satellites on a mission dubbed Themis to observe a geomagnetic storm in February. They correlated...

A rocket bound for places high above Earth to study the aurora borealis failed shortly after launch Sunday and crashed at 180 mph into the White Mountains National Recreation Area, north of Fairbanks.

A magnetic storm provided some breathtaking views in certain parts of western Pennsylvania Thursday night. Aurora borealis, commonly known as "Northern Lights," lit up the sky with a red glow. According to the DeNardo Weather team, auroras appear when Earth's magnetic field vibrates in response to a solar wind gust. People on the ground are protected from any danger by a magnetic bubble around Earth called the "magnetosphere." Visit spaceweather.com for more information about auroras.